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My new touring bike!

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I finally made a decision and put a deposit down on my new touring bike, a 2011 Rocky Mountain Sherpa!!!

I considered most of the usual suspects when I was shopping, and they were all good bikes. I chose the Sherpa because my favorite LBS is a Rocky dealer. The only bummer is that I have to wait until MAY(!!!) to get my new bike

In the meantime, I'm shopping for the racks, panniers, etc. to make this bike a dream touring machine!

I have read quite good things about Sherpa touring bikes on a LHT email list I belong to, congratulations! You have as long to wait as I do for my Gunnar (for different reasons), we can encourage each other to be patient

redrhodie: I do have a tour planned for this summer. I talked my DH and all of my in-laws (mom, dad, 2 SILs, and BIL) into touring from Jasper to Banff along the Icefields Parkway this July. I am SUPER excited!!! DH and I have also talked about doing a longer tour (maybe Vancouver, BC to San Diego, CA) when I finish my PhD.

malkin, Catrin, and maillotpois: Thanks! I'm impatient, but trying to look on the bright side of things. May is quite far away, but it's so cold and snowy here that I wouldn't be able to ride a bike right now anyway.

Did you order the 47cm Ambikes? I was keeping an eye out waiting to see if you were going to do it! I look forward to May now too.

Here is a picture of my Sherpa before I took off the panniers and racks and put her away for the winter. The pink fenders were left on.http://forums.teamestrogen.com/attac...1&d=1295307060
I received a pair of front Ortlieb panniers (as a gift to myself) this past holiday. Preparation and anticipation are such a tease.
How wonderful for you to already have a tour planned.

Tri Girl: My DH actually bought me front and rear panniers for Christmas. I chose Ortlieb front and back rollers, and he chose the color (bright yellow!) so that it would still be some sort of surprise. I'm looking at racks right now. I think I want to go steel for those too, but I haven't made any decisions past that. I'm also trying to decide what I absolutely need vs. what I want. I'm not a big person, so I am trying to be careful with gear to keep the weight of the bike + stuff down (without sacrificing too much durability!). I know from my experience backpacking that if I buy it, I will feel obligated to use it!

wnyrider: Thanks again for your help in the other thread. I did end up ordering a 47 cm to get the appropriate TT length. The shop actually had a 2010 Sherpa in the 50 cm size, and it was quite obviously too big. The whole experience actually reinforced my love for my LBS. When I was road bike shopping, a different LBS put me on a bike that was a size too big and tried to tell me that it wasn't too big and that we could make some adjustments that would make it more comfortable. It turned out that they were just trying to clear out last year's stock to make room for the new stuff. Putting me a a too big bike to clear out stock was never even an option at my LBS, which makes me feel good about spending my money there.

Did you order the 47cm Ambikes? I was keeping an eye out waiting to see if you were going to do it! I look forward to May now too.

Here is a picture of my Sherpa before I took off the panniers and racks and put her away for the winter. The pink fenders were left on....

This is just beautiful! I find myself a bit leery about getting a front rack for my LHT, but that is likely just from my overall lack of riding experience. By the time I am actually ready to do any real touring with my touring bike, it shouldn't be an issue.

The racks are both Jandds-- Extreme front and Expedition rear. Please note, I did have to buy 12" rack extenders for the rear. The 8" ones that came with the purchase of the rack were too short. I don't know if you will find this adaptation necessary when you select your racks or with your smaller size or not, but I figured I would share it with you.

I find myself a bit leery about getting a front rack for my LHT, but that is likely just from my overall lack of riding experience. By the time I am actually ready to do any real touring with my touring bike, it shouldn't be an issue.

From what I've read, it's actually better to put some weight up front when you are touring with a heavy load. I guess it balances everything out or something. I don't have any personal experience with loaded touring yet, so I can't say for sure whether it's true or not.

From what I've read, it's actually better to put some weight up front when you are touring with a heavy load. I guess it balances everything out or something. I don't have any personal experience with loaded touring yet, so I can't say for sure whether it's true or not.

This is very true. In preparation for a long self-supported tour, DH and I did a two-day shakedown tour with our equipment. I had purchased a set of large rear panniers (Arkel), and filled them with the approximate weight of what I'd need to carry on the long tour. My bike handled really poorly b/c all that weight was on the back. I did have a front handlebar bag, but that wasn't enough to balance the back weight. There were times when I was going up climbs that my front wheel wanted to lift right off the road -- definitely unsettling! And there were other handling issues I don't really recall now (this was in 2004).

In any event, I sent back the large panniers and ordered two sets of smaller panniers, along with a front rack. This was a much, much better setup, though more expensive. In fact, the research I did after our shakedown indicated that if you are only going to use one set of panniers, they should be on the front (not huge ones, of course). I wish I still had the web page, b/c it showed all sorts of pannier configurations and made recommendations based on how much gear you needed to carry.